June 17, 2005

Former University of New Mexico men's basketball player Ruben Douglas was known for hitting big shots in The Pit during his three seasons at UNM. Last night, he hit another big one, but this time it was on a different continent in the Italian League Championship.

Douglas has spent the last two seasons playing in Europe, suiting up for Climamio Bologna in 2005. He averaged 13.0 ppg and 5.0 rpg, shooting 52.3% from the field, 33.3% from 3-pt. range and 82.2% from the FT line during the regular season. He also played in the 2005 Italian League All-Star game.

His solid play led Climamio to the league finals for the ninth time in the last ten years, however, Climamio had only won one of those previous trips. Climamio faced off against Armani Jeans Milan in a best-of-five series, with game four taking place Thursday night in Milan. Climamio held a 2-1 lead in the series going into last night's game.

With seven seconds left in the game and Climamio trailing 65-64, Milan's Dante Calabria, a former North Carolina standout, missed on a three-point attempt. The long rebound was picked up by Climamio's Gianluca Basile who passed the ball down court to Douglas. Douglas turned and buried a three-pointer with 1/10 of a second left on the clock. His shot from the left wing had to be reviewed by the referees, but was awarded, giving Climamio the 67-65 win in the game and the championship series.

Douglas led Climamio with 16 points on 6-9 shooting, 3-5 from 3-pt. range. He also had four rebounds and three assists in game four. In 11 playoff games, Douglas averaged 13.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg and shot 41% from 3-pt. range.

Details of this story were provided by Roberto Gotta, a sportswriter for the Italian magazine Superbasket. Gotta also added that Ruben's hair had gotten out of control in a "vertical direction," and that he appears to be 6-9, instead of his 6-5 height during his Lobo playing days. Gotta continued to say that Milan sponsor and clothing designer Giorgio Armani attended all of the finals games and liked Ruben's look, adding that Ruben could be a model following his playing days. That, of course, was before Ruben hit the shot to beat Milan.